Scammers plant fake support numbers in real Dell and Staples emails
Original title: Hackers Are Using Real Dell and Staples Emails to Make Their Scams Look Legitimate
Cisco Talos linked about 1,400 messages in two campaigns that pass DKIM and DMARC because retailers send them.
Attackers are inserting scam instructions into genuine Dell and Staples order notifications so recipients call attacker-controlled numbers about purchases they do not recognize. Cisco Talos described two campaigns of roughly 1,400 messages in an October 21 report and said the activity is phishing and phone fraud, not confirmed malware. Samples passed DKIM and DMARC because they came through retailer systems. Talos did not establish what happened after victims called.
Unconfirmed: Talos did not establish which follow-on fraud actions occurred in these two campaigns.
- Talos also saw abuse of more than 25 legitimate platforms over the past year.
- A Staples sample cited an Apple iPad order and helpline 806 283 7712.
- A Dell sample described a $736.09 Microsoft Project Standard 2024 order and helpline 808 232 6397.
- Staples sender support@orders.staples.com and Dell sender received@order.dellcom were listed as indicators.
Impact: Callers may face payment fraud, password theft, or remote-assistance scams
- 1.Review user-controlled fields for unexpected phone numbers, links, and support instructions before emailing.
- 2.Inspect full messages, including content nested in delivery reports, not only the outer sender.
- Organizations
- Cisco Talos
Indicators of compromise
auto-extracted · verify before use · export allAll| Type | Indicator | Context |
|---|---|---|
| domain | order.dell.com | com Legitimate Staples infrastructure Authentication domain order.dell.com Legitimate Dell infrastructure Order reference 9939818875 S |
| domain | orders.staples.com | eived@order.dellcom Dell notification Authentication domain orders.staples.com Legitimate Staples infrastructure Authentication domain ord |
| received@order.dellcom | rt@orders.staples.com Staples notification Sender, verbatim received@order.dellcom Dell notification Authentication domain orders.staples.com | |
| support@orders.staples.com | line lure Scam phone 808 232 6397 Dell helpline lure Sender support@orders.staples.com Staples notification Sender, verbatim received@order.dellco |
From the original article
3 min read at cybersecuritynews.com
Hackers are abusing genuine Dell and Staples order emails to make fake purchase alerts look credible. Instead of sending a forged message, they place scam instructions inside order details that trusted retail systems deliver, pushing recipients toward phone numbers controlled by the attackers. The emails describe expensive purchases that recipients may not recognize.
By Tushar Subhra Dutta · cybersecuritynews.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.